February 28, 2013

Speculation running rampant that Mayor Ravenstahl will drop out of race

It started with this story at Early Returns at 10:30 PM last night which noted that Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl had been missing more meetings than usual in the last few days and quoted a close ally:

"It is with a heavy heart that I tell you here tonight that the mayor couldn't make it. Within the next couple of days he'll be having a press conference to discuss some issues,'' Mr. Quigley said adding that "... there's some personal things going on right now that I'm not at liberty to discuss.''

"Everyone in this room supported the mayor at one time or another,'' he continued. "Us as Northsiders it's always been an old adage that we stick together. I'm asking everyone on this room to send their prayers out to the Ravenstahl family and to stick together as Northsiders.''

Later, Mr. Quigley alluded to the federal investigations swirling around the city Police Bureau as he said, "I'm going to tell you that the mayor is implicated in nothing that's going on with the city. He's having some personal issues. And I am here to tell you that in the next couple of days there's going to be some kind of press conference. I would just ask everyone in this room, reserve your thoughts and say a prayer for the mayor and his family.''

That was followed up with a similar story in the Post-Gazette two hours later.

7 comments:

My sense is, and this is pure speculation, that Nate Harper knew the details of at least some of the Mayor's extra-curricular activities. I would bet (a small amount of money) that when it hit fan about Harper's activities, and Ravenstahl "asked" Harper to resign, Ravenstahl also asked Harper about whether he is going to say anything about the Mayor to investigators. Harper's answer has already determined whether it is likely that Bill Peduto will be the next Mayor of Pittsburgh, or even whether Darlene Harris might have a new, interim job in the near future.

Also FWIW, my thought was that Harper might bargain for a lighter sentence by delivering the Mayor even though the Mayor had not previously been a target of an investigation. And I wouldn't have had the first idea what the answer to your question was.

This is a thing that I believe a lot of us wondered if it would ever happen, and why it hadn't happened already.